As a conventional conveyor chain for loading and carrying articles, a conveyor belt adapted to slide and discharge the articles to a side of a carrying line in the course of carrying for handling, sorting or the like is known as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-182829.
In such a conveyor belt, each belt module for loading and carrying the articles is constituted by mutually connecting hinge parts formed on a first member and a second member superposed in a normal direction and are connected together, respectively, through a hinge pin The modules include balls for sliding and discharging the articles to the side of the carrying line, which are rotatably held between the first member and the second member.
However, the conveyor belt that is the conventional conveyor chain as described above has the problem that not only the number of part items constituting the belt module of a belt essential part is doubled, but also the integrated strength of the belt modules cannot be sufficiently exhibited since it adopts the belt module structure of confining the balls by the first member and the second member combined together from the normal direction.
It further has a troublesome problem that, replacing a worn ball is complicated. For example, the belt module composed of the first member and the second member must be in a normal direction disassembled after pulling out the hinge pin to take out the worn ball, and at that time, freeing of balls other than the worn ball may occur.
The present invention thus has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems in the conventional art, and provides a conveyor chain capable of independently and easily attaching ball units to a single chain link to prevent separation thereof, and also facilitating the detachment thereof.